Work in the cloud or on-premise?

Dovetail is a next-generation Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), based on an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS). When you work with the cloud-based version of Dovetail, you work in a private, secured environment on an external Dovetail server. You log in via an online portal, from any device and any place on Earth, and all your application and data integrations are easily accessible. The cloud-based Dovetail version is always up-to-date and does not require any hardware investments. Of course, we also offer Dovetail on-premise if your specific situation requires this. But what is the difference and what are the general pros and cons of these two methods?

The cloud

Simply put, the cloud is a collective name for IT services that do not run locally, but online. They are based on shared use of hardware, applications and data. While some applications still run on-premise, these are increasingly often migrated to an online environment, to the cloud. Despite the growth of business software in the coud, we still see that some organisations have their doubts regarding a possible migration of (parts of) their business applications to the cloud. Regarding business software in the cloud, these organisations still only love what they know.

On-premise

On-premise is the common term for indicating that automation is housed on the company premises, either privately managed or with the partial support of an IT company. In this case, aside from the workstations (which you would still need when working in the cloud), you also require your own servers, back-up systems, firewalls, software licenses, etc.

The differences

Dovetail updates (for both the cloud and on-premise version) are always installed in joint discussion with the customer, at the time that the user benefits from it

Data is transported, transformed and enriched by Dovetail. Dovetail itself does not store any data

When variables are stored on the server, these will always be stored with encryption and only on European servers, in line with the GDPR directives. We have opted for two-factor authentication for logging in

Dovetail has selected the cloud services of Amazon, the largest cloud provider in the world

In short, the prejudice and doubts that exist surrounding cloud software are largely unfounded. In many cases, the cloud is not always cheaper, but it does include all visible and invisible costs and makes them transparent. You are actually investing in availability and certainty, and you no longer need to worry about updates, maintenance and the scalability of your infrastructure. Returning to the question in the title of the blog: on-premise or cloud? We cannot give a clear-cut answer. Each organisation should pick the environment best suited to their corporate context. Organisations with a high degree of IT maturity, with a complete IT infrastructure, might not (yet) need to migrate to a cloud-based solution. However, once the time comes for new investments, this will definitely be worth considering.